All told, the Fortune 500 generated nearly $10.8 trillion in total revenues last year, up 10.5%. Total profits soared 81%. But guess who didn’t benefit much from this giant wave of cash? Millions of U.S. workers stuck mired in a stagnant job market. [...] Nevertheless, we’ve rarely seen such a stark gulf between the fortunes of the 500 and those of ordinary Americans.

When you're competing with Uganda and the Ivory Coast for top spot on national income equality....you might want to investigate why.

We're all now aware of GE's $14 billion profits in 2010, all without paying a single dime in federal taxes. More recently, "investors" were disappointed with the earnings report of poor Exxon Mobil last quarter.....they only made profits of $10.9 billion .....this while House Republicans were simultaneously blocking a bill to discontinue tax giveaways to the oil industry behemoths.

With all that information in tow.....try attaching this to the drain on your brain....

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner plans to ignite the debate by unveiling a white paper that
advocates lowering the top corporate tax rate from the current 35 percent to less than 30 percent and as low as 26 percent, according to aides. The proposal is likely to fall between 26 percent and 28 percent.

To pay for that, the proposal will call for closing loopholes and slicing exemptions. The two main ones are a tax deduction for domestic manufacturing and accelerated depreciation for capital equipment.

Aides say Geithner will personally dive into the negotiations. House Speaker John Boehner also sees this as a ripe area for bipartisan cooperation. And House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan included corporate tax reform in his budget, which has been adopted as the GOP’s fiscal blueprint.

Agreeing on how to rework corporate taxes will be tough, and many aides remain privately pessimistic. But the two sides’ willingness to try to find common ground is a notable departure from their stances on most other contentious issues on the Capitol Hill docket.

Record corporate profits, average CEO pay at $9.6 million (not including the huge stock option increases), Fortune 500 members receiving tax subsidies, a dearth of revenue flowing into the state and federal treasuries causing Tea Party governors to attack spending on the disabled, for Christ's sake.....and the only "common ground" our bought and paid for elected officials can find is reducing corporate tax rates?

This delusional and national suicidal behavior was also apparent last December when the only "common ground" both sides could find was to extend tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires....and oh-by-the-way....while we're at it....let's go ahead and throw a bone to the obscenely wealthy estates by cutting the federal estate tax rates too.

Former budget director for Ronald Reagan, David Stockman says both parties are now "essentially telling a big lie" about taxes and the necessity of increasing taxes to confront deficits and debt.

A portion of a recent interview with Stockman...

FREELAND: You worked for Ronald Reagan. Do you think the American economy — so you’re, like, a red-blooded capitalist —
could it sustain higher taxes than it has now?

STOCKMAN: Absolutely. In 1982, we were looking at the jaws of the worst recession since the 1930s. We overdid it in 1981, cut taxes too much. We came back with a big deficit reduction plan in 1982. Unemployment’s at 10 percent, the economy is in dire shape, and we raise taxes by 1.2 percent of GDP, which would be $150 billion a year right now — not 10 years down the road — but right now.

Even the voodoo economics worshiper, Ronald Maximus, wasn't as out of touch as politicians on both sides of the aisle today. Reagan agreed to tax increases shortly after cutting taxes too deeply the year before.

No wonder former Arkansas GOP governor Mike Huckabee recently said Reagan couldn't be nominated for president today.

It's not only Republicans who have become delusional about tax rates. In their race to gather up $1 billion....mostly from corporate profit troughs....to re-elect President Obama next November, Democrats are proving that they are hopelessly compromised. Democrats are falling over themselves in their rush to initiate "common ground" negotiations with Republicans over how best to lower corporate tax rates. All at a time when corporations are having difficulty keeping track of their record setting profits.

Lowering taxes on the rich and the powerful has never translated into the creation of new jobs. Our nation's biggest and most immediate problem is lack of jobs. In light of that, our Serious leaders are going to find common ground in the lowering of corporate taxes.

The downward spiral in America's standard of living.....now at 1998 levels....will continue.